Thursday, October 8, 2015

This
week I was at a conference with a great preaching teacher – Dr. David Schmitt.
He was one of my favorite professors in Seminary. It is fun to go back into
those situations and remember when learning how to be a pastor was my main
job.Dr. Schmitt has so much skill, and he
certainly brought those who attended up on the times. One of the amazing things
he does is say things that become a huge aha moment. I know the stuff he says in
my head, but when he says it out loud, it hits home and the light turns on. That
happened again at this conference.This
one is so good that I questioned whether to tell this story so quickly or to
save it, but I trust God will give me more moments like this to preach on. Anyway,
we were talking specifically about how God cares for us, and how to preach on
that. Dr. Schmitt said, “When my mom says, ‘Well, I have all these things to
pray for. I am not sure God has time to listen to me.’ ” In his frank and
matter of fact way, Dr. Schmitt replied, “Mom, God’s eternal. He’s got time. Trust
me.” Aha! Yeah, that is totally right!

So
often in my life and ministry I hear this type of comment, questioning if God
has time for me. I am pretty sure I have thought that a time or two as well. To
have Dr. Schmitt say it so matter of factly, and with those words, it was so
clear. It is our human nature to define time by our standards, not God’s. I
knew this, but having someone say this truth out loud cut so deep.

I
pray a series like this does that for you. Over the last three months we have
not been talking about subjects and ideas that are all that mind altering. Rather,
we have been talking about Jesus’ values, outcomes, and strategies, and how He
gives them to His people. Yet, like my experience with Dr. Schmitt, when you
say them out loud you realize how common yet true they are, and intentionally
implement them even more in your life and conversations. This happens over and
over again for me after I preach on these subjects, or even just prepare to
preach on them.

Over
the last several weeks I spent more time with Charlie and Viola. Viola had been
at Mt. Calvary since 1936. This was her second home. This week her final
service was held here. When someone has been a member here for that long, you
know that they were shaped by many values that happened in this place. Viola,
with her loving smile and tender care, was always there for her family. They
describe her deep love and how they knew they could count on her. I watched her
husband, Charlie, and her son, Charles, sit with her everyday in the hospital,
and eventually in hospice. Every time I came to visit her, they were always
there, capturing every moment with her up to the end. The value of love was
deep in their heart, and they were living out what Viola always did for them.
It is moving for me to watch what God has done in a family like that. Jesus’
love is deep in their hearts. He is the greatest and unfailing example of someone
who is always there for us.

If I
were to tell Viola that it is a strategy to Love 1, I think it would play out
like Dr. Schmitt, his mom and the story that God is eternal. Viola knew, and
Charlie knows that Love 1 has always been a strategy of Mt. Calvary, but now we
are communicating it and defining it. Sometimes that makes it stronger and puts
it on the front of our lips. It also helps us to think through how we want to
carry it out. While stories like Viola and Charlie have happened and will
continue to happen, a series like this prepares us to be intentional in that
way. For instance, I am pretty sure that every time someone questions if God
has enough time for their prayers, I will now respond, “He’s eternal. He’s got
time. Trust me.” This weekend I pray that Jesus, who is always there for us out
of His love for us, moves in our hearts so that we can intentionally Love 1 as
a church.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

A
few days ago we turned on an episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. It is funny
to watch my kids and how they can latch onto a show that obviously was created
years ago. Many questions about how we watched T.V. came out of this. They are
shocked, of course, that there was no rewind or fast forward. They are shocked
that our television watching was not connected to Netflix. Even at their young
ages they pick up on the differences between the childhood their parents lived
versus today.

It
is no secret that Mr. Rogers was communicating a message through his show.
There are books out describing the ministry he had for kids. He had a strategy
to disciple kids through his lessons. On the show we watched, Mr. Rogers had a
kid with special needs. The child had a tumor removed as a baby, which caused a
spine issue and put him in a wheel chair for the rest of his life. He talked to
Mr. Rogers about his chair, his surgeries, and his medical challenges. Rogers’
gentle voice and care for the child was evident. He talked about how much the
kid’s parents loved him and took care of him. The episode started with electric
cars (it was funny to see where they were with that back then) and ended with
an electric wheel chair. Make no mistake, Rogers was teaching kids about care
and concern for others even in their differences.

Did
Rogers really have a strategy? Is that a bad thing? In a context like we see
here, we are probably ok with a strategy. So often, though, I think we are
afraid of words like this in the church. We are afraid to become to “business-like.”
Rogers was ahead of his time. He knew that if he wanted to influence children
in a positive way, he had to have a strategy that was intentional. Now years
later, books have been written about the way Rogers influenced children. Even
in an outdated show on electric cars, my kids still take something from it.
Rogers’ message was so intriguing that it captured their attention. Sure, at
the end they said it was a little long and they asked why he used those
puppets, but with a few updates, Rogers’ show could again be relevant.

Three
years ago we brought the discipleship model forward with the understanding that
we wanted people to know what a disciple of Christ looked like. Three years ago
many questioned how long it would be around. We have stayed the course, and it
is because we see that Jesus was teaching His disciples to understand the
importance of these same elements. We continue to ask ourselves how to package
this in a way that people understand. In light of that, we realized not only is
this a discipleship model, but it is a strategy -- our strategy. In lifting up
our values and outcomes, we can help guide people and explain this strategy.

Rogers
wanted to impact kids and change their minds to be people who could impact this
world. During those times my father wasn’t around, I learned from people like
Rogers. Sure, I had grandpas, uncles and others, but watching that one show of
Rogers recently reminded me of the part he played in my passion for people. In
a culture that still needs relationships, we know the greatest impact is made
when God’s people impact the relationships in their lives. If we don’t
understand the strategy or the way to do that, we are empty handed in our
relationships with others.

I
would love to know the strategy Jesus had, but that would mean I would need to
understand the mind of God.Then we
could understand how He created His people and how to help them. Well, that
won’t happen, at least not until eternity. Now, though, we can watch the
strategy of Jesus by His actions with the disciples and others. Jesus was there
in the lives of people – loving, healing and discipling. Jesus did have a goal
– to have our relationship with Him restored. That is why He died and rose
again. He was teaching people key practices in their lives. We believe that these
4 elements: Worship 1, Love 1, Read 1, and Pray 1, make up a strategy – a
discipleship model – and it is all centered around grace. That is how you get “Stratacipleship
Grace.”We begin this weekend with the
first week – Worship 1.

It
only takes one lunch to find out what is going on with a friend. One lunch,
dinner, or just hanging out with them will help you understand what is going on
in the world of others. I have a friend who just lost his mom to cancer. I
found out this week that a pastor who is highly loved and highly revered has
ALS. Also this week we watch as Webster Gardens mourns with their pastor at his
loss. (This may seem like deja vu for you.) I just heard a story of lady who
lost her dad while he was out riding his bike, which he had been doing to get
healthy and take care of himself. We don’t have to look hard to see that this
is a broken world, and every morning we wake up and realize we are living in
it. Yet, so often we pretend like it doesn’t have brokenness. I guess we think
it is easier on people if they don’t have to hear about our brokenness, so we
smile and pretend like our lives are going great. Sometimes we try to not to
hear about the brokenness of others because it is just easier that way.

No
matter how long we try to ignore it, the reality is that this is a broken
world. Every household is facing that brokenness in one way or another. They
could be facing a sin they personally struggle with, the death of someone they
know, illness, or the sin of others to them. A lot of my call as Pastor is to
listen to that brokenness, but it is also my job to prepare others to listen to
it. God calls all of us to listen to the brokenness of others and seek out
those opportunities to share the healing love of Jesus with them.

The
final two Mt. Calvary outcomes collide together. The first one is living in
this broken world, but the second one is connecting Sunday morning with the
rest of our life. In worship we take time to give that brokenness to Jesus and
let him heal it, but do we do that on a daily basis? I can’t be everywhere
pronouncing absolution on you. That would be cool if I could. Imagine, you are
on the street corner thinking about the pain or the sin of your friend, and
miraculously I appear sharing Jesus’ forgiveness for those sins and His healing
for our pains. If that was my call I would never get a break, not just from all
of you, but from telling it to myself. But isn’t that what we need? We
encounter brokenness so often and we need to hear from God’s word that His
forgiveness can heal all of it.The
challenge now is how do we connect what happens in worship on Sunday with the
rest of our lives? How do I wake up hearing the forgiveness that Jesus gives on
Sunday morning, but hear it on Monday or Wednesday? It doesn’t take long before
we understand why these are outcomes we want to see at Mt. Calvary, but then how
do we carry them out?This weekend we
talk about that.

Abby
wakes up from naps and often criticizes the person that left her. If I was in
her room before she fell asleep, or she is at Mt. Calvary’s pre-school with one
of her teachers, she will wake up and say that we left her. Little people are
dependent on others and thus confident that adults will be there. This is
something that God naturally puts in us. That is why if a child (especially a
young child) has a parent they can’t depend on or be confident that the parent
will be there for them, he or she can be affected for life. When a kid heads
off to college excited and confident, the dependence on their family suddenly
disappears. Most days the student never realizes how important it was in the
first place, but it is a feeling that he/she will never forget. Now the student
has an understanding of why that dependent love was something necessary in
his/her life.

As
believers in Christ, we soon learn that there is truly nothing in this world that
we can be absolutely confident will remain the same. At the same time, we are
also growing in understanding and confidence of God’s love. What I mean is, life
is full of sin, pain and loss that impacts and affects everyone, and as we
realize this, we see that we can’t be confident of anything in this life. In my
life, there are two people who are dealing with the potential loss of a parent,
or have just gone through it. All the confidence that Abby has when she wakes
up from a nap, that someone she loves and trusts will be there with her, can
one day suddenly be ripped out from under her. I am watching these two friends
struggle through that loss. They both love Jesus and have confidence in His
love, but their human dependence and confidence of what they had growing up is
slowly disappearing. You can see and feel the pain from people going through
this, even in Facebook posts.

Since
I go to a lot of funerals, I see that this never changes. Even someone who
loses a loved one at 98 can feel the same strong loss as losing someone who is
younger. God built us to love and care for others, and that confidence and
dependence on those who have been in our lives is powerful.

In a
sermon series on outcomes you would think the blog would be positive and
uplifting. The reality of this world is why this outcome is so necessary for
believers. When the people we have our confidence in fail us, then what? It is
then that we grow in the understanding and confidence of God’s love. Scripture
is powerful. It shows us that the believers in Christ were continually taken
care of by the love of Jesus. In their toughest and weakest moments, they were
able to trust God’s provision. This is what we want at Mt. Calvary. When people
are at their weakest moment, we want them to be confident that the love of
Jesus will see them through. This is a moment where, as people who understand
the love of Jesus, we can confidently tell people to wait for it-- wait for the
moment when my Jesus shows up. There is nothing that He can’t handle! He is and
always has been there to love and care for me! This is confidence in the love
of Christ. When people learn that this world always falters, they can see how
Jesus never does.